1) A review of the Middle East policy, and especially the one-sided support for Israel. There is really no point in supporting a fascist state bent on ethnically cleansing another nation. This support stands in total contrast to American values and gains the US the contempt of most the world (where the power of the Israel Lobby to spin and distort reality is far less than in the US). With a balanced policy, America can use its powerful leverage in the region to bring about an end to the Israeli Palestinian conflict which, as Tony Blair noted, has poisoned the region and the world.

2) A US foreign policy that respects international law and restores America's role as a promoter of law, order and democracy in the world.

Is there a Democratic candidate out there who is able to stand up to the Israel Lobby and restore America's moral standing in the world?

The debate has pitted Ms. Rice and her deputies, who appear to be winning so far, against the few remaining hawks inside the administration, especially those in Vice President Dick Cheney's office who, according to some people familiar with the discussions, are pressing for greater consideration of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Rice's views represent the kind of political realism that served the US well in the past under previous administrations. The war mongering side consists of the evangelical fundamentalists and the neocons backed by the powerful Israel Lobby.

While Rice's side appears to be winning for now, it would be a mistake to write off the power of he lobby this early in the game. They are dead serious about war with Iran.

Looks like the project that the neocons/Israel Lobby/evangelical lunatics/Big Oil have worked so hard to bring about is close to collapsing. Too bad so many Americans and Iraqis had to die for this!

Aluf Benn managed to write an entire article about the situation in Palestine without mentioning the "O word" once. The fact of the matter is Abbas has no control over the West Bank. He only controls a few disjointed Bantustans crisscrossed by for-Jews-only roads and raided by the Israeli army on a daily basis.

Israel and the US will give Abbas everything except for the one thing he truly needs: an end to the occupation and apartheid in the West Bank! The reason is Israel's appetite for West Bank land and resources has been fully satisfied yet.

Unfortunately the US is tying its foreign policy to an apartheid regime that strives on war and occupation.

It is absolutely hypocritical to put people in large prisons, steal their land and resources and then expect them to act like Finns before they are offered a "peace process" (as Dov Weisglass used to say) which is more about "process" than "peace".

Realname, stop your tired charges of anti-Semitism. Can't you see for once that the occupation and theft of Palestinian lands are at the root of this horrible tragedy?

A more expensive oil would provide the economic incentive to invest in alternative renewable energy sources. This would be good all around as we reduce our reliance of Middle Eastern oil and help the environment.

This is the same Olmert who said in November 2006 that the American operation in Iraq "brought stability to the Middle East"! and who wants American troops to fight Iran (another one of Israel's little wars designed to destabilize its adversaries and thus bring "stability" to the region).

Hamas' takeover of Gaza was a logical conclusion to Israel's policy of undermining moderate Palestinian leaders so that Israel can continue the takeover of the West Bank and the building of an apartheid state over the "land of Israel" (formerly known as Palestine).

http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=341

the idiocy and stubbornness of the extreme right wing and the machinations of the Israel Lobby which wants to get the US in a war with Iran now that Israel's strategic objectives in destroying the nation of Iraq -and not just the loathsome Saddam regime- have been achieved.

A politicized Department of Justice, an unnecessary and unwindable war half a world away and the weakening of America's moral standing around the world.

Lombard's arguments seem to make sense. After all, he is right in stating that, for most of history, humanity has looked for solutions in the wrong places. I think the debate about priorities guided by cost-benefit analysis is long overdue.

Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent, and target Israel, and destabilize the Palestinian territories.

---George Bush

I would say that Israel destabilizes the Palestinian territories -and the entire Middle East- far more than these groups do through its brutal occupation and apartheid policies. As former president Carter noted, the West Bank is crisscrossed by "for-Jews-only" roads and dotted by "for-Jews-only" settlement colonies. Palestinians there can be killed for getting close to these apartheid roads.

In fact, if it wasn't for the Israeli occupation and the venom it spreads in the Middle East and the relationship between the US and the Muslim World much of the world's terrorism would not have existed.

The Neocons' dilemma is how to sell a war on Iran - which like the war on Iraq would be designed to enhance Israel's strategic interests in the Middle East at the expense of America's interests- without the benefit of the fear, panic and patriotic fever generated by 9/11.

The neocon war has succeeded in destroying the nation of Iraq and with it much of the US's moral, political and economic power, not to mention the lives of so many young American soldiers.

As if this wasn't enough, the Israel Lobby and the necons continue trying to push the US into another war that promises to be even more devastating. This time with Iran.

But with the scare tactics becoming less effective by the day, the American public won't be deceived again.